Early History

Much, if not all, of what is today Tajikistan was part of ancient
Persia's Achaemenid Empire (sixth to fourth centuries B.C.), which was
subdued by Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. and then
became part of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, one of the successor states
to Alexander's empire. The northern part of what is now Tajikistan was
part of Soghdiana, a distinct region that intermittently existed as a
combination of separate oasis states and sometimes was subject to other
states. Two important cities in what is now northern Tajikistan, Khujand
(formerly Leninobod; Russian spelling Leninabad) and Panjakent, as well
as Bukhoro (Bukhara) and Samarqand (Samarkand) in contemporary
Uzbekistan, were Soghdian in antiquity. As intermediaries on the Silk
Route between China and markets to the west and south, the Soghdians
imparted religions such as Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity,
Zoroastrianism (see Glossary), and Manichaeism (see Glossary), as well
as their own alphabet and other knowledge, to peoples along the trade
routes.

Between the first and fourth centuries, the area that is now
Tajikistan and adjoining territories were part of the Kushan realm,
which had close cultural ties to India. The Kushans, whose exact
identity is uncertain, played an important role in the expansion of
Buddhism by spreading the faith to the Soghdians,who in turn brought it
to China and the Turks.

By the first century A.D., the Han dynasty of China had developed
commercial and diplomatic relations with the Soghdians and their
neighbors, the Bactrians. Military operations also extended Chinese
influence westward into the region. During the first centuries A.D.,
Chinese involvement in this region waxed and waned, decreasing sharply
after the Islamic conquest but not disappearing completely. As late as
the nineteenth century, China attempted to press its claim to the Pamir
region of what is now southeastern Tajikistan. Since the breakup of the
Soviet Union, China occasionally has revived its claim to part of this
region.

The Islamic Conquest

Islamic Arabs began the conquest of the region in earnest in the
early eighth century. Conversion to Islam occurred by means of
incentives, gradual acceptance, and force of arms. Islam spread most
rapidly in cities and along the main river valleys. By the ninth
century, it was the prevalent religion in the entire region. In the
early centuries of Islamic domination, Central Asia continued in its
role as a commercial crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the
north, and the Islamic heartland.

Persian Culture in Central Asia

The Persian influence on Central Asia, already prominent before the
Islamic conquest, grew even stronger afterward. Under Iran's last
pre-Islamic empire, the Sassanian, the Persian language and culture as
well as the Zoroastrian religion spread among the peoples of Central
Asia, including the ancestors of the modern Tajiks. In the wake of the
Islamic conquest, Persian-speakers settled in Central Asia, where they
played an active role in public affairs and furthered the spread of the
Persian language and culture, their language displacing Eastern Iranian
ones. By the twelfth century, Persian had also supplanted Arabic as the
written language for most subjects.

The Samanids

In the development of a modern Tajik national identity, the most
important state in Central Asia after the Islamic conquest was the
Persian-speaking Samanid principality (875-999), which came to rule most
of what is now Tajikistan, as well as territory to the south and west.
During their reign, the Samanids supported the revival of the written
Persian language.

Early in the Samanid period, Bukhoro became well-known as a center of
learning and culture throughout the eastern part of the Persian-speaking
world. Samanid literary patronage played an important role in preserving
the culture of pre-Islamic Iran. Late in the tenth century, the Samanid
state came under increasing pressure from Turkic powers to the north and
south. After the Qarakhanid Turks overthrew the Samanids in 999, no
major Persian state ever again existed in Central Asia.

Beginning in the ninth century, Turkish penetration of the Persian
cultural sphere increased in Central Asia. The influx of even greater
numbers of Turkic peoples began in the eleventh century. The Turkic
peoples who moved into southern Central Asia, including what later
became Tajikistan, were influenced to varying degrees by Persian
culture. Over the generations, some converted Turks changed from
pastoral nomadism to a sedentary way of life, which brought them into
closer contact with the sedentary Persian-speakers. Cultural influences
flowed in both directions as Turks and Persians intermarried.

During subsequent centuries, the lands that eventually became
Tajikistan were part of Turkic or Mongol states. The Persian language
remained in use in government, scholarship, and literature. Among the
dynasties that ruled all or part of the future Tajikistan between the
eleventh and fifteenth centuries were the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols, and
the Timurids (Timur, or Tamerlane, and his heirs and their subjects).
Repeated power struggles among claimants to these realms took their toll
on Central Asia. The Mongol conquest in particular dealt a serious blow
to sedentary life and destroyed several important cities in the region.
Although they had come in conquest, the Timurids also patronized
scholarship, the arts, and letters.

In the early sixteenth century, Uzbeks from the northwest conquered
large sections of Central Asia, but the unified Uzbek state began to
break apart soon after the conquest. By the early nineteenth century,
the lands of the future Tajikistan were divided among three states: the
Uzbek-ruled Bukhoro Khanate, the Quqon (Kokand) Khanate, centered on the
Fergana Valley, and the kingdom of Afghanistan. These three
principalities subsequently fought each other for control of key areas
of the new territory. Although some regions were under the nominal
control of Bukhoro, or Quqon, local rulers were virtually independent.